Ecological Building

By T A Vijayasanan

Term Project for ME 599

Submitted to: Prof. Steven Skerlos
 Contents

 The term project

 what is the problem?
 why is it important?
 what has been done?
 what i am going to do?
 Environmental impacts of building
 Sustainable built environments
 Attributes of environmental sustainability
 The technology of Ecological Building
 Basic Principles & Measures
 Examples & Ideas
 Introduction

 Environmental considerations the primary driver for future

architectural design
 Buildings affect the ecosystem
 Since the end of WWII, there has been a high demand for new buildings, be it
urban, suburban or rural areas
 Construction of new buildings imposed a significant burden on the environment
 A continuous and cyclical flow of resources occur in a building
 The input and output elements for a building include materials, energy, natural
resources like water, consumer goods, waste, etc.
 These input and output elements have diverse environmental implications
 The term project

 What is the problem?

 Human habitation is a prime reason for the irreparable environmental
degradation we are witness to today
 Built forms not only exhaust valuable natural resources but also pollute the
environment
 Poorly designed buildings result in a loss of the local eco-system
 Cities are responsible for the ecological damage on a regional and national scale

 Lack of knowledge about the impact of design on the environment and a lack of
enthusiasm among many architects to adopt sustainable methods

 A probable reason for the lack of popularity of sustainable design is the ‘high-
initial costs’ of design and construction
 The term project

 Why is it important?
 The sheer magnitude of buildings that have being constructed in every part of the
world, magnifies the impact architecture has on the environment
 Also, the rapid urbanization, especially in developing countries
 The effect of high concentration of built forms in urban settings add up on the
environment

 The issue of environmental degradation due to built form, is critical because, its
ill-effects drastically minimized by adhering to strong design principles, common
sense & technological innovation
 The term project

 What has been done?

 There is a tremendous body of literature with respect to sustainable architectural
design
 In many universities and research organizations, sustainable design is a primary
thrust area
 There are a few architectural firms that practice architecture using sustainable
principles

 Significantly, government bodies have put legislations in place that are the first
steps towards sustainable human habitation
 These efforts have been ably complemented by an informed media and public
 The term project

 What am i going to do?

 The first step is to understand the impact of built form and human habitation on
the environment
 A review of the relevant literature and research works in the field of sustainable
architecture/ eco-design
 A look into the principles, strategies and techniques adopted by sustainable
architectural practices

 to present relevant material as an educational module

Environmental impacts of building
 Environmental impacts of building

 Shortage of building materials

 Historically, building materials like wood, brick, adobe were procured locally
 High construction volumes during the last 30 years have drastically depleted
naturally available resources
 Ex: due to scarcity of structural lumber, wooden architecture has become a rarity

 Concrete-masonry structures represent the majority of low-rise residential and

commercial buildings
 Steel is used as the primary structural material in high-rise buildings

 The substitution of natural materials like wood with materials like steel may solve
the short term resource shortage problem but should not be considered as the
ultimate solution
why do some
buildings sit
lighter than the
others?
 Environmental impacts of building

 Noise, vibration, dust and traffic

disruptions
 Noise, vibrations and dust are
major sources of environmental
pollution due to construction
activity
 Building types such as industries
and theatres must be zoned
carefully to prevent adverse
impacts on people working/living in
the surrounding areas

 Construction methods and design

principles employed must ensure
the above sources of pollution are
minimized or eliminated completely
 Environmental impacts of building

 Food wastes
 In dense urban sprawls, the management of organic food waste is a major
problem and poses a challenge to the environment
 Grinding and disposing of food waste into the sewer increases the content of
organic materials so high that it becomes difficult to treat at water treatment
plants

 Releasing untreated/improperly treated sewer has adverse impacts on water

bodies in the ecosystem
 In many countries, it is required by law to separate organic food wastes from
other domestic solid wastes

 Methods, such as composting, to treat organic wastes in ways beneficial to

nature must be adopted and improved further
 Environmental impacts of building

 Water pollution
 Single-family homes in rural communities, in
most parts of the world, are not connected to
municipal water treatment systems
 Sewer generated from these buildings reach
creeks, rivers and lakes through surface run-off
 The same water bodies may be the primary
source for fresh-water withdrawal for major
cities downstream
 Currently most people in cities rely on bottled
water for drinking as they cannot drink
municipal water without domestic treatment

 The release of untreated sewer from rural

communities upstream is a major cause for this
low quality water problem
Drinking water business is
profitable these days
 Environmental impacts of building

 Disruption of the natural

landscape
 Buildings disrupt natural
landscape
 Many buildings are designed with
complete disregard for its
topography and surroundings
 Although they may not cause
physiological harm to people and
the environment, they ruin the
visual quality of nature

 Building on sensitive natural areas

must be judiciously regulated
F L Wright’s “Falling Water” is a good example
of how to build in harmony with Nature
 Environmental impacts of building

 Disappearing green spaces in

urban areas
 Urbanization is a world-wide
phenomenon with over 50% of the world
population living in urban areas
 Sub-urban farmlands and forests are
encroached by ever expanding
residential and commercial zones

 Green spaces (parks, gardens) are
becoming increasingly scares in urban
areas
 Lack of green space deteriorates the
physical, visual and psychological well-
being of human residents and
immeasurably hurts the local and the
regional eco-system
Protecting green areas must be high on
our priority list
Destruction of ‘green spaces’ creates
the ‘heat-island effect’
This causes night time temperatures
remains uncomfortably high in many
cities, causing an increase in electricity
consumption for air-conditioning.
Sustainable built environments
 Sustainable built environments
 The flow of materials
 A building is a part of the global ecosystem
 There is a continuous flow of resources, natural and manufactured, through the
building
 The flow begins with construction and continues throughout the building’s
lifespan to create an environment for sustaining human wellbeing and activities

 This flow of materials can be

divided as ‘upstream’ or the input
& the ‘downstream’ or the output

 The materials going into a

building will come at some point of
time.
 This is called the ‘law of
material flow conservation’

Eden Project by Architect Nicholas Grimshaw

makes use of minimum material
 The Building ecosystem

input building output

building used materials

materials
wasted heat. CO2, CO,
energy SO2
water gray water, sewer
consumer waste, recyclable
goods materials
solar radiation warm air
wind polluted air
rainwater storm water
 Sustainable built environments
 The flow of materials
 For any material, its form before entry into a building
after exit is different
 This transformation of material from input to output is
caused by many mechanical processes or human
interventions
 These inputs and outputs have diverse environmental
impacts

Strategies to reduce impact on

the ecosystem:
- Input reduction methods that ensure
minimal flow of non-renewable
resources into a building.
- Output management that include
proper waste management like recycle,
reuse, etc.
‘Paper house’ by architect Shigeru Ban uses
cardboard and recycled paper
 Sustainable built environments
 Building material considerations
Architect Glen Murcutt’s house for an
aborigine family in Australia
Building is lifted off the ground to minimize
environmental impact. Sustainable methods
such as use of locally available materials
employed.
 Extraction, processing, manufacture and
transport of building materials are energy
intensive processes
 The energy consumed by building
materials in these processes is called
‘embodied energy’
 The use of alternative building materials
having low embodied energy is one way of
reducing a building’s environmental impact
 In order to facilitate construction,
temporary roads may need to be built
 This causes permanent damage to existing
vegetation, wildlife & topography
 Sustainable built environments
 Energy considerations
 The building requires a constant flow of energy

 Environmental impacts due to energy

consumption by buildings occur primarily away
from the building site: in the process of
generating power and harvesting of energy
resources
• coal-fired electric power plants emit
pollutants such as SO2, CO2, CO and NOX
into the atmosphere
• nuclear power plants generate radioactive
wastes
• hydropower plants require a dam and a
reservoir, the construction of which result in
the discontinuation of the river ecosystem ‘House R128’ by Werner Sobek
and the loss of habitats for humans, animals in Stuttgart uses completely
and plants recyclable materials, produces
no emissions and is self
sufficient in terms of energy
requirements
 Sustainable built environments
 Water requirements
 Water is required for the purposes of
drinking, cooking, washing, flushing of
toilets, etc.
 Water supplied to the building requires
treatment and delivery, which consume
energy
 Waste water or sewer from buildings can
be classified as
 gray water: does not contain high
concentration of contaminants
 black water: contains very high
concentration of contaminants
 Consequently, gray water requires
minimal treatment before it can be reused
 Installation of sanitary fixtures such as
‘low-speed showerheads’, smaller size
toilet tanks and high-pressure flushing Landscaping at the Salk Institute at La Jolla,
systems reduces water consumption CA by Louis Barragan, employs methods to
conserve water and achieves beautiful
 Innovative landscaping and drip-irrigation spaces
systems contribute to water conservation
Impact of built form on the water cycle
 Sustainable built environments
 On-site natural resources
 Natural energy on-site, such as solar
radiation, wind, air, rainwater and ambient
heat or cold has implications on the design
process
 These natural resources can be harnessed
for optimal performance of the building
 Incident solar radiation is the most
abundant energy source for buildings and Well Articulated windows in ‘Hawa
provides heat & light Mahal’, Jaipur provides cool
 Vernacular buildings reveal ingenious breeze in a desert area
architectural solutions for dealing with
the sun and other climatic conditions
 ‘Passive solar architecture’ offers
design schemes to harness solar
energy using building façades and
structures
 Prevailing wind conditions for cooling and
ventilation has tremendous implications on
architectural design
 Rainwater harvesting can be beneficial in
arid regions and urban areas
These typical Kerala (India)
houses use rainwater harvesting
methods and pitched roof for
Ecological Building
 Ecological Building

• What can be learnt from history?

• In the past, human beings lived in harmony
with their environment
– Comfort requirements were different
– Small population meant ample space,
modest requirements, low energy
needs and emissions
– Waste products mostly recyclable &
bio-degradable
– Mobile communities
– Low threat to the environment

Nomadic life & sparse requirements

drove the architecture of the past and
made it sustainable
 Ecological Building

• Buildings in cold climates characterized by:

– Small windows that allowed little light into spaces resulting in minimal heat
gains/loss and cooling/heating loads
– Building mass with high thermal storage capacities
– Low standards for heating and sanitary systems

These castles in Europe use small fenestrations to minimize heat loss

 Ecological Building
• Buildings in temperate zones
characterized by:
– Tendency to locate living areas
underground to utilize coolness of the
earth and create ventilation through
buoyancy
– Small window & roof elements
minimizing heat transfer
– Use of narrow courtyards to promote
ventilation
– Fine grained cities that cause mutual
shading
– Use of water as an architectural
element
 Ecological Building

• The Industrial Age is characterized by:

– Migration of ever increasing population from
rural to urban areas
– Extremely poor living conditions for most
people
– Industrialization & rapid advances in
technology
– Increased demands for energy met through
use of coal & gas
– Sharp increase in emissions; indiscriminate
dumping of wastes
– No efforts to protect environment, conserve
natural reserves
– BEGINNING OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL
CALAMITY

Alarming number of industries,

poor living conditions, deteriorating
environment mark the industrial
era
 Ecological Building

The early & mid 20th century is

characterized by:
– Urbanization, technological development,
industrialization, concentration of labor in
cities at a frantic pace
– Concentration of workplaces in small areas
– Shortening of distances for communication
& information
– Maximized utilization of available spaces
– An architecture & technology that pays no
respect to the environment & energy
consumption
– A false sense of ‘Man has overcome
nature’
– Skyscrapers, fully automated climate
control

New York the city of skyscrapers

 Ecological Building

 Late 20th century architecture

characterized by:
– Renewed search for elegant architectural
solution with respect to energy use,
environment & ventilation
– Facades designed for natural ventilation
– Creation of climate buffer zones (halls
and atria)
– Improved heat insulation & sun
protection
– Implementation of energy recovery &
waste treatment systems
– Major energy crisis in 1973
– Architects, engineers & clients turn to
ECOLOGICAL BUILDING DESIGN
Commerzbank headquarters ‘Menara Mesiniaga’ by Ken Yeang
in Germany by Architect in Malaysia is a revolutionary high-
Norman Foster uses garden rise building design using
terraces every 12 floors sustainable principles
 All things are connected like the blood that
unites us,  We did not weave the web of life. 
We are merely a strand in it.  Whatever we do
to the web, we do to ourselves. 

-Chief Seattle